Monthly Archive: February 2021
by Bill Otis · Feb 9, 2021 11:41 pm
But the curtain will get pulled back in this space. Here’s the story’s opening paragraph:
Jerry Lyons, 31, had spent his entire adult life committing crimes. He had dozens of arrests in California — attempted robbery, burglary, evading police, driving a stolen vehicle, weapons charges, drug charges, shoplifting, trespassing, etc. — but kept getting turned loose until Thursday, when he finally killed somebody. Sheria Musyoka, 26, was an immigrant from Kenya who had graduated from Dartmouth and moved to San Francisco with his wife and three-year-old son. Lyons was behind the wheel of a stolen car when he killed Musyoka.
It doesn’t get any better.
Continue reading . . .
by Bill Otis · Feb 9, 2021 11:13 pm
…..or maybe not. Here’s the headline from People Magazine: “Mom Allegedly Left Newborn in Toilet After Giving Birth While on Parole for Role in Death of Another Baby.” The sub-head is also informative: “Denette Williams allegedly told police she did not know she was pregnant when she felt cramps and heard a ‘plop’ in the toilet.”
Ah yes, loving motherhood. What better way to enter the world than as “a plop in the toilet.”
Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · Feb 9, 2021 3:59 pm
The claim that America’s criminal justice system is systemically racist is not new. It was the basis of the 1991 riots in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers caught on video beating a black man named Rodney King. The video was damning, but it did not show King, who was drunk and just one year out of prison for robbery, leading police on a 117 mph chase through Los Angeles. It did not show King’s two passengers obey officer’s orders and remain unmolested, nor King’s refusal to comply and actually charge one of the officers. The riot resulted in 63 deaths and $1 billion in damage. Whatever had been done to close the racial divide in the years following the Rodney King riots seems to have evaporated in recent years.
Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Feb 8, 2021 11:39 am
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant granted most of the preliminary injunction sought by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County (ADDA) against recently elected District Attorney George Gascón. Among other matters, the DA is enjoined from requiring deputies to violate the mandatory charging aspect of California’s Three Strikes Law.
Here is the operative paragraph of the order: Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Feb 5, 2021 11:19 am
Bill Melugin of Fox 11 LA, has posted on Twitter the LA DA’s message to the media in response to the Sheriff’s letter on attendance at parole hearings, noted here Wednesday. One can only wonder what alternate reality these people are living in.
“When heart-wrenching crimes occur, victims and their families are changed forever. That is why District Attorney Gascón has directed our office’s victim advocates, who are trained to provide trauma-informed care, to support victims during parole hearings. They are available to attend any hearing where victims want them present. Sheriff’s deputies, like prosecutors, do not have all the pertinent facts and evaluations at their disposal. The Parole Board does — and its sole purpose is to objectively determine whether someone is suitable for release.” — Alex Bastian, Special Advisor to District Attorney George Gascón
Where do we begin? Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Feb 4, 2021 10:30 am
Marcia Coyle has this article in the National Law Journal (free registration required), titled Appellate Judges, Including Justice Breyer, Reflect on Remote Arguments in Virus Era.
In the pandemic era of remote oral arguments, audio is good, but audio-visual is better, although both come with a significant cost of reduced or eliminated eye contact, federal and state appellate judges said in a recent survey.
Twelve jurists, including Justice Stephen Breyer, responded to questions about their experiences with remote arguments in an article in the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process: “Remote Oral Arguments in the Age of Coronavirus: A Blip on the Screen or a Permanent Fixture?” In addition to the U.S. Supreme Court, the judges who participated in the survey sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Supreme Judicial Courts of Maine and Massachusetts.
Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Feb 3, 2021 11:38 am
The Los Angeles Times printed this editorial last Friday, predictably defending LA DA George Gascón and blasting the Association of Deputy District Attorneys’ lawsuit. The editorial is titled, “Let George Gascón do the job L.A. voters asked him to.” But did they ask him to do what he is now doing?
The Metropolitan News-Enterprise, a much smaller LA paper that focuses on judicial issues, responded yesterday with an editorial titled “Los Angeles Times Defends Gascón With Flawed Arguments.” Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Feb 3, 2021 10:14 am
“Curiouser and curiouser.” In the wonderland that is Los Angeles County, deputy district attorneys are forbidden by their “woke” boss to attend parole hearings to oppose the release of violent thugs. Now the county sheriff (who has some dubious policies of his own) is going to send sheriff’s deputies to the hearings, so that victims and justice are not entirely unrepresented. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Feb 3, 2021 9:36 am
Generally, one cannot sue a foreign government in American courts. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act establishes the basic rule, subject only to specified exceptions.
In Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, No. 19-351, the Supreme Court addressed a sale of art allegedly coerced by the government of Nazi Germany in 1935 for only one-third of its value. Can the heirs of the sellers sue the present German government in U.S. courts to get it back? Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Feb 2, 2021 12:00 pm
Sarah Lynch at U.S. News and World Report reports on a spat between the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat and Republican over scheduling the confirmation hearing for AG-Nominee Merrick Garland. Incoming Chairman Dick Durbin wants the hearing February 8 for one day, but outgoing Chairman Lindsay Graham says one day is not enough. Continue reading . . .
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